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Ellis Parker Butler - "The Water Goats and Other Troubles"

Edwin Arlington Robinson - "The Man against the Sky"

Xenophon - "The Apology"

Ernest Bramah - "The Mirror of Kong Ho"

A Romance of Arizona

J >> John Murray and Mills Miller >> A Romance of Arizona




"Buck, he told me. Buck, he 'lowed you had your share of that
money," he explained.

The boy drew the money from his pocket and handed it to Slim,
remarking: "Here it is--all of it, I never touched it--I was
goin'--" Bud was about to lie again, but he realized the futility
of more falsehoods. "Take it," he added.

Slim counted the money and slipped it in his pocket.

"Bud," he said to that young man. "Me an' you have been pretty
good friends, we have. I learned you how to ride--to throw a
rope, an' Bud--Bud--what did you take it for? I know you didn't
murder Terrill for it, but what did you keep the money for?" He
asked the question with anger and annoyance.

Slim had seated himself by the fire. He spoke to the boy as he
would to a comrade.

"Can't you see?" the boy asked. "Polly. I wanted to make a home
for her--and now she'll know me for what I am, a thief--a thief."

Bud buried his face in his hands, the tears trickling through his
fingers, although he fought strongly against showing his
weakness.

Slim rose and stepped to his side, laying his hand on the boy's
shoulder. "Mebbe she won't have to know. Buck, he's dead, and
only you and I know."

Bud looked at the speaker in amazement. A lovable smile crept
over Slim's face. "I'm goin'," he said, "to slip you a new deck,
an' give you a fresh deal. That was part my money that was
stole. I never came back at the county fer it. Buck, he's paid
half. I'll let 'em all think it was the whole. I'll put in a
thousan' I have at home, that I was savin' to buy in with the
Triangle B, in case I don't git elected nex' time. So, Bud, I'm
going to lend a thousan' o' this to you, just to give you a
chance at that little home."

"You're the whitest man I ever knew!" cried Bud.

"I reckon I ain't colored, 'cept a little red mite on top,"
laughed Slim. He disliked any show of feeling by the boy over
the offer he had made.

"But I can't take your money," Bud protested.

"Yes, you can," assured Slim. "You pay it back when you get on
your feet again. I'm going to take your word."

Slim's generosity overwhelmed the boy. "Take my word!" he cried.

Slim laid his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Yes," he declared,
"You've made your first bad break, but you've had your first
lesson. An' you ain't going to forget it," he added
emphatically.

"And Polly?" he faltered.

"There ain't nobody going to tell her." Speaking sternly to Bud,
he added: "You make her a good husband."

Bud seized the Sheriff's hand, wringing it warmly. "I will,
Slim; I will," he promised.

The wait had been too long for Polly. She returned before Slim
called her, saying: "I'm tired of waiting on you-all. Haven't
you finished up that business yet?"

"Yes, ma'am, it's finished," replied Slim.

"Did Bud tell you about it?" inquired Polly.

"He told me. Seems like you two are going to get married."

"Uh-huh," laughed Polly happily. "And, oh, say, will you stand
up for Bud?"

"I reckon Bud can stand up for himself now, with you to help
him," answered Slim emphatically.

"We'll run over and tell the boys you're back," shouted Bud.

Slim took the hands of the young people in his own big ones.
"I'm right glad you two are going to hitch up," he said. "I am
dead sure you'll make a even runnin' team."

Polly glanced shyly at Slim. "Bud won't mind if you kiss me,"
she hinted. Slim grinned sheepishly. In his embarrassment he
rubbed one foot on his other leg. "Well--I ain't--never--that
is--" he stammered, "Bud, if you-all don't mind," he boldly
asserted, after his bashfulness had waned, "I reckon I will play
one little bet on the red."

The Sheriff never did anything in a small way. The kiss he gave
her full on the lips was a resounding one.

Bud took Polly by the hand, and silently led her to the house.
Slim sat down on a keg behind the fire. Taking some loose
tobacco and a film of rice-paper from his pocket, he deftly
rolled a cigarette, and lighted it with a brand from the blaze.
With a sigh he removed his hat. He was the picture of dejection.
For several moments he sat in deep thought. Then, with a deep
in-drawing of his breath, and a shrug of the shoulders, he cried:
"Hell! nobody loves a fat man."

CHAPTER XVIII
Jack!

When Polly told the boys in the corral that Slim had returned and
was waiting for them at the mess-wagon, they dropped their work
and made for him with wild whoops and yells. Slim smiled as he
heard the coming.

Show Low made a running jump, throwing his arms about the
Sheriff's neck. Parenthesis and Sage-brush each grabbed a hand,
pumping up and down emphatically. The others slapped him on the
back. All talked at once, asking him the news, and whether Jack
had returned.

"Did you nip it up with the 'Paches," asked Parenthesis.

"Talk, durn ye, talk!" shouted Show Low, "or we'll hang out your
hide."

Slim shook the hands of his comrades, in turn, affectionately.

For each he had his own, particular form of greeting. "No,
boys," he said, when the group became more orderly, "I ain't
a-goin' to say a word 'till I see Mrs. Payson first."

Polly had ridden at once to the house to tell the joyful news of
Slim's return to Echo, who hurried at once to the boys about the
wagon.

Parenthesis spied her riding down the trail. "She's comin' now,"
he cried.

"Boys," requested Slim, "would you mind herdin' off yonder a
bit?"

The cow-punchers strolled over to the cottonwood, leaving Echo to
meet Slim alone.

"Where is he?" was Echo's tearful greeting.

"Well, ma'am, there's a man out yonder that's been through fire
and brimstone for you!"

Echo stared over the prairies. Then Jack was still searching for
Dick. Slim had failed to find him. "Out yonder," she moaned,
wringing her hands.

"Wait a minute," says Slim. "He says to me, says he: 'Break
it to her, Slim; tell her gentle--an' if she wants me--call, and
I'll come.' Ma'am, Dick Lane is dead."

Echo shuddered. "Dead," she repeated. "By his--"

"No, no," interrupted Slim; "not that way. Indians. Jack found
Dick, an' the Indians found 'em both. When I come up with the
soldiers from Fort Grant they was havin' the derndest mixup with
Indians you ever did see. Both men were bad hurted, an'
Dick--well, ma'am--I leaned over him jest in time to hear him
say: 'Tell her I know she was true--and not to mind.' Then he
gave a little ketch of his breath, and dropped back into my
arms."

Echo sighed. The tragedy of the desert was very real to her. In
the many months that the two men had been away she had lived
through it with them in poignant imagination.

"Great-hearted Dick," she said. "I was not worthy of his love.
And Jack, where is he?"

"Wait a minute--he wants to know if you can forgive him--if you
will take him back."

"Slim!" was the only word Echo uttered, but the volume of love it
contained told him everything.

"You needn't say nothin' more--I see it shinin' in your eyes,"
cried Slim.

"Jack! Jack!" he shouted, "you derned idiot, come a-runnin--"

Payson hurried up from the arroyo within which he had been
waiting.

"Echo, I have not altogether failed in my mission. I have not
brought Dick Lane back, but I hope I come from him bearing
something of his loyalty and simple faith. If you ever can learn
to trust me again--if you ever can learn to love me--" he said to
Echo humbly.

"Don't be a derned fool, Jack," blurted Slim; "can't you see she
ain't never loved no one else?"

"Echo, is it so?" asked Jack eagerly.

Slim grinned. Going over to Echo's side, he gave her a slight
push, saying: "Go tell him."

"Jack!" was her only cry, as her husband enfolded her in his
arms.

* * * * * * *

With the next election for sheriff in Pinal County, William Henry
Harrison Hoover had no opposition, for Buck McKee's nomination
for that office of one Peruna, formerly of the Lazy K outfit, was
not ratified for several reasons, the chief of which was that W.
H. H. Hoover, alias Slim, had, just previous to election,
officially declared that the said Peruna was deceased, having
come to his death in the jail-yard of Pinal County, by a sudden
drop at the end of a new hempen rope, which did not break, as
Slim, before the ceremony, had assured the apprehensive Peruna it
would not.

The sudden and successive removals of its two most honored and
influential members, Buck McKee and Peruna, greatly demoralized
the Lazy K outfit, and the demoralization was completed by the
pernicious activity of the reelected Sheriff in interfering with
the main purpose of that industrial organization, which was the
merger of the Sweetwater cattle-business through a gradual
amalgamation of all brands into the Lazy K. One by one the
captains or cavaliers of this industry sought more congenial
regions, where public inquisition into such purely private
concerns as theirs was not so vigorously prosecuted.

It must not be thought that the social graces and persuasive
abilities of Sheriff Hoover were confined to the conduct of
legalized necktie-parties and the dispersion of outlaws. In its
extended account of the "Lane-Hope Nuptials," the Florence Kicker
devoted much of the space to the part taken by the "best man" in
the ceremony, "our genial and expansive boniface of the new
county apartment hotel." And soon after it recorded that the
same Sheriff Hoover had induced the "charming Miss Wiggins,
sister of our deputy sheriff, to be his partner for life, as she
had been for the dance at the Lane-Hope nuptials, described in
our issue of June 15," and that "the happy couple receive their
friends--which we are instructed our readers is an 'invite' to
the entire county--at their future home, the new county jail, on
the Fourth of July."

And in a "local" paragraph of the issue containing the latter
notice, the editor of the Kicker remarks:

"Remember the Sheriff's Round-up on the Fourth. As ( ), our
friend from the Sweetwater with the 'all round understanding,'
says: '} up, Slim; all the boys will be there to [pointing
finger] you a few; you'll sure see * * *.'"

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